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January 2009 - Posts

It's nice to be liked

Posted Friday, January 30, 2009 9:27 AM by alanpa
My obsession with monitoring amazon.com sales ranks is backing off a bit (I only check a few times a day now). Sales of the book are slow but steady, but given that it's a niche market, I can't complain. I don't make any money from the book, but I still Read More...
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The Programmer Tester

Posted Wednesday, January 28, 2009 4:15 PM by alanpa
James Bach gave a talk at Microsoft yesterday. Among his many points, he reiterated a few points he’s been making for years that got me thinking…so I thought I’d continue the thinking in this blog post. James is concerned that Microsoft is hiring too Read More...
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The role of the SME and the SDET

Posted Sunday, January 25, 2009 3:57 PM by alanpa
Reader Ram asks: “… should an SDET be an SME in the application or be an SME in automation only or should be an SME is both application under test and automation tool? “ Full comment is here . A tester can do many things, but very few can do everything. Read More...
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My Three Ts

Posted Thursday, January 22, 2009 8:04 PM by alanpa
Today was an interesting day. Having a dose of economic reality hit close to home can be just what you need to refocus and rethink things. All is well with my team, but the weirdness of the day made me think again about what I do and how I can bring the Read More...
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Good Times, Bad Times …

Posted Monday, January 19, 2009 10:19 PM by alanpa
It looks like our little test excellence team may be growing by one person. This is fantastic news and will help us be of better service to testers everywhere. There is a bit of bad news to go with this. Without doing a bit of reorganization in our team Read More...
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Metrics at STAR Conference

Posted Saturday, January 17, 2009 7:22 AM by alanpa
I think I forgot to mention that I'll be speaking at STAR this spring. You'd think I'd be pimping hwtsam , but instead I'm speaking about something barely mentioned in the book at all - metrics . Software metrics are an old passion of mine - something Read More...
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My Box is Round

Posted Monday, January 12, 2009 12:12 PM by alanpa
Metaphors are cars – I think. There are many metaphors in software, a lot of them are useful, but most break down eventually. In hwtsam (chapter 3 to be exact), I compare creating software with cooking. I’ve mentioned on numerous occasions that  Read More...
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Bugs, bugs, and books

Posted Friday, January 09, 2009 11:10 AM by alanpa
Bugs in software are a lot like bugs in the home. Even though you know they're there, sometimes you just don't want to know. As a tester, of course, finding bugs is part of what we do. If I were to continue the analogy, I guess if an exterminator had Read More...
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Putting together HWTSAM

Posted Tuesday, January 06, 2009 1:02 PM by alanpa
I’ve never written fiction before, but if I did, I imagine I’d start at chapter one and work straight through to the end. Something interesting about hwtsam , is that it was written out of order . This practice is common in movies and television, and Read More...
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My 2009 advice for programmers (on making - or keeping - testers happy)

Posted Saturday, January 03, 2009 5:06 PM by alanpa
A commenter on a previous post stated: As a programmer I don't like to see bugs (and I don't like the QA ranting about the qaulity of my work either). Could you post your "2009 advice to programmers" on how to make testers happy I’m always open Read More...
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My pragmatic thoughts for the New Year

Posted Thursday, January 01, 2009 1:37 PM by alanpa
All of sudden, it's a new year. I came to visit my parents in Eastern Washington a few days ago, and I'm still here waiting for the passes to clear up enough for me to get home. I don't feel much like working, but wanted to share a thought while I had Read More...
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